The wool blankets that were used during my time in the mill were a pain in the
butt. The blankets were about 4' wide x 6' long x 2" thick. The construction was
like an oreo cookie. On the outside was a wire mesh and sandwiched in between
was the wool blanket. The wire mesh provided the proper stiffness needed to
throw the blankets on the bottle car from a position above and to the side of
the track as the bottle car left the BOF. The worker would often use a long
hooked length of 1/2" gas lancing pipe to properly re-position the blanket from
where it landed when tossed. The pipe was readily available in long lengths
which made for a good tool/hook. The problem with the blankets in practice was
that often the blankets would blow off during the return trip from the BOF to
the Blast Furnaces. There were blankets along side of the track that the bottle
cars were run on all over the plant. If they were not picked up they sometimes
would get caught by the 'trucks' of the bottle cars and hook on to whatever was
close by. By far the most dangerous part was when a blanket was not picked up
and it rained. The wool would breakdown and you would be left with the wire
mesh. The railroad crews and gandy dancer crews would not see these at night and
would trip on them while next to the track. A potential disaster with rolling
equipment going by.